1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to computer technology, and more particularly to buffering systems which provide security in accessing/viewing electronic documents and web pages.
2. Description of the Related Art
Owners of web sites and senders of e-mail (collectively referred to as the “host”) can cause significant damage to viewers of web pages and recipients of e-mail (collectively referred to as the “client”) by causing computers to download files which when later executed by the client's computer, cause unwanted changes to the configuration of the client's computer or perform unwanted operations by the computer. The unwanted operations could include sending out unintended e-mail, logging into other computers, and transferring files out of the client's computer. For example, hosts may plant viruses which can spread and infect the client's computer. Electronic mail is analogous to a web page in the sense that it may contain links and scripts. Other electronic documents, such as word processing files, “pdf” files, and other types of application-specific files may also contain executable scripts.
Many users are aware that mouse clicks can activate some executable scripts embedded in a web page, but fewer users are aware that placing the mouse over certain other parts of a browser's window can also activate such scripts. This is known by programmers as “on mouse over” activation of code and scripts. Standard protection methods allow the user to disable the running of scripts unless they come from one of a list of servers that are trusted by the user. However, this protection is too restrictive because it limits the process of exploring web sites, which have not been previously visited. Thus, the user may wish to visit a web site that appears at the top of some search results, but cannot activate all of the features of such web sites. Unfortunately, there is no easy way for the user to know about such dangerous “on mouse over” areas in the web page without either actually placing the mouse over these areas and suffering the potentially deleterious consequences, or checking the HTML source code, which could be very difficult, time consuming, and often beyond the technical capabilities and understanding of an average user.
Thus, there is a need for users (clients) to be able to easily retrieve/view the useful contents of web pages and e-mail messages along with other electronic documents without compromising the security of their computers.